PHOTO: Supreme Leader’s top aide Velayati “Victory belongs to the Syrian government and nation”
The senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader has proclaimed that the Assad regime is beginning to triumph in the five-year Syrian conflict.
Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian regime’s chief official commenting on Syria, told reporters on Sunday:
The political and military balance in Syria is shifting in favor of the country’s government, people and its allies.
We firmly believe that victory belongs to the Syrian government and nation.
Velayati has led the regime’s declarations since last autumn that the removal of Assad from power is a “red line” which cannot be crossed.
However, Iran has run into trouble with its essential military support for the Assad regime, which has escalated from last autumn with Tehran’s coordination with thousands of Russian airstrikes.
Since early April, rebels have a series of victories against Iranian units and Iranian-led foreign militias south of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Scores of Iranian commanders and troops have been killed.
Iran continues to maintain that it is only putting “advisors” into Syria. But on Sunday Velayati alluded to the far wider intervention and said it would continue: “It is incumbent upon us to help them and this has been done.”
He added that Syria, Iran, and Russia are pursuing “a common objective and are united in the fight against terrorism”.
Last week, in the wake of the Aleppo defeats, Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan hosted a meeting with Russian and Syrian counterparts.
